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| Teenage bomber kills 22 Jirga elders in Bajaur |
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Friday, November 07, 2008
19 militants die in air strikes
By Mushtaq Yusufzai
PESHAWAR: Twenty-two tribal elders were killed and 50 others injured in a suicide attack on an anti-Taliban tribal Jirga in Salarzai area of militancy-hit Bajaur tribal region on Thursday.
A purported militant outfit, Karwan-e-Niamatullah, a splinter group of Baitullah Mehsud-led banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) operating in Salarzai Tehsil, has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Military officials said 19 militants were later killed when Pakistan Air Force (PAF) fighter jets and military gunship choppers heavily bombed militant hideouts in various parts of Mamond Tehsil. One of the Jirga members, Malik Abdul Nasir, told The News from Salarzai by telephone that a young boy of 15-20 years entered the Jirga and blew himself up in the middle of the elders.
The elders, he said, were holding a meeting at an open place at Barsadeen village, 25 kilometres north of Khar, headquarters of Bajaur.“A young boy who had just disembarked from a car came towards the Jirga, sat down near Haji Fazal Karim and then blew himself up,” the tribal elder said.
Malik Nasir, whose father and a tribal elder Malik Mohammad Ayaz died in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast last year at Mulla Said Banda in Salarzai Tehsil along with journalist Dr Noor Hakim Khan and tehsildar Wisal Mohammad Khan, said nine tribal chieftains died on the spot and over 60 others sustained serious injuries.
The injured were taken to the Agency Headquarters Hospital in Khar while some of them were shifted to the District Headquarters Hospital in Timergara, Dir Lower district. Tribal sources said nine elders died on the spot while 11 others succumbed to injuries at the Khar hospital and two at Timergara hospital.
Doctors at the Agency Headquarters Hospital in Khar said they had received around 45 blast victims, of whom 15 were in a critical condition. Some of the critically injured were later sent to Peshawar for treatment. The tribesmen complained that most of the people died due to lack of adequate health facilities at the main public sector hospital in Khar.
“There are only two surgical specialists in the entire Bajaur region and both of them were not present in the town when the injured were brought to the hospital. The two doctors arrived after an hour when most of the tribal elders brought in serious condition had succumbed to injuries,” said a senior tribal journalist, Hasbanullah Khan, based in Khar.
The dead included noted tribal chieftains and members of Salarzai tribal Lashkar. Besides, a prominent tribal elder and leader of Salarzai tribal Lashkar, Haji Fazal Karim Baro, also died in the attack.
An aged but ever-active Haji Fazal Karim, who was a retired major of Bajaur Levies, had played a leading role in raising a tribal Lashkar against tribal and foreign militants hiding in his native Salarzai Tehsil when the government launched a massive military operation against them in August last.
Officials said the head of suicide bomber had been recovered and brought to Khar hospital. They said it seems that the suicide bomber was an Uzbek national.Meanwhile, Political Agent of Bajaur Agency Shafeerullah Khan announced Rs50,000 cash for each of the injured.
A caller who introduced himself as Abdur Rehman, a spokesman for Karwan-e-Niamatullah militant group, called The News and claimed responsibility for the attack.The tribal elders who were attacked, he said, were acting on the government directives and were involved in destroying houses of Taliban leaders in Salarzai.
The military officials said warplanes and gunship choppers bombarded militant positions in Mamond, Kotkai and Darra areas of the troubled tribal region, killing 19 militants.They said planes also targeted the house of Faqir Mohammad at Chopatra village in Mamond but there were no details about any casualty.
Niamatullah, who is considered a leader of this splinter group, was earlier selling socks in Rawalpindi and returned to Bajaur in 2004 to join Maulvi Faqir Mohammad-led tribal militants.He then occupied a mosque in his native Salarzai area and turned it into a Madrassa and started imparting religious education through other people, as he himself didn’t have any religious knowledge.
Very soon Niamatullah became a dominant figure as he succeeded in getting support of foreign militants, particularly Arabs living in Mulla Said Banda and Darra areas.He developed differences with the TTP leader in Bajaur, Maulvi Faqir Mohammad, and was expelled from the mainstream militant group.
Faqir had once even declared him as ringleader of dacoits.However, two other militant commanders, having close ties with Arabs, Wali Rahman, leader of Jaishul Islami, also a splinter group of banned TTP, and an Afghan militant commander Qari Ziaur Rehman, welcomed Niamatullah in their ranks and warned Faqir Mohammad not to move against him.
He recently occupied three government primary schools in Salarzai and turned them into Islamic courts.Tribal sources said the Salarzai tribal elders had convened a Jirga at Barsadeen area of Salarzai Tehsil to consider launching another armed action against militants still hiding in Mulla Said Darra and Banda areas near the border with Afghanistan’s troubled Kunar province.
The same tribal Lashkar had made an attempt to demolish houses of militant commanders, including Niamatullah, leader of a militant group, Karwan-e-Niamatullah, but suffered losses when they came under attack from militants.
Terming the Thursday suicide attack on Jirga a serious setback to efforts of tribal Lashkar, the tribal sources said it would demoralise tribal elders in rest of the violence-hit region to raise Lashkars and take action against militants.
APP adds: President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani have strongly condemned the suicide bomb blast at a jirga in Bajaur Agency that claimed innocent lives.
The president and the prime minister in their separate messages denounced the terrorist act and said that terrorism and extremism would be eradicated from the country at all costs. They expressed deep sorrow and grief over the loss of lives and injuries caused by the blast and said the perpetrators of such heinous crime would not be spared.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
